diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 9fd859d483..7346e1829e 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ if cc.get_id() == 'msvc'
       '/wd4146', # unary minus on unsigned (beware INT_MIN)
       '/wd4244', # lossy type conversion (e.g. double -> int)
       '/wd4305', # truncating type conversion (e.g. double -> float)
+      cc.get_supported_arguments(['/utf-8']), # set the input encoding to utf-8
   ]
   add_project_arguments(msvc_args, language : 'c')
   add_project_arguments(msvc_args, language : 'cpp')